When was the last time you made a purchasing decision based on positive customer reviews? Most of us can remember when we decided NOT to buy something based on negative reviews. It works both ways.

Online reviews have become the new go-to on social and they have tremendous power when it comes to influencing decision-making behaviours. Research shows that over half of all consumers are likely to seek out additional information, and that online reviews matter most before buying products and services.

If your business reviews don’t currently have 5 stars and you’ve received a number of disappointing reviews, here are some tips.

For each negative review that has been posted, you should:

• make sure you take the time to thank the reviewer for taking time to explain the situation.

• reach out to them personally to apologise and understand what happened.

• to ensure the person feels heard, list some actions that you will undertake to review the process so that their experience doesn’t happen to other customers.

Further research shows that 50 percent of buyers will forgive the actions that caused them to post the bad review if the situation is resolved properly.

It is possible to create a positive impact with a large portion of disgruntled buyers, making even bad reviews positive in the end.

In addition to being able to identify and correct what went wrong in the first place, bad customer reviews give you insight into the outside perception of the company. Negative reviews can be helpful to reveal what needs improving, whether employees are doing a good job, and how to strengthen a strained relationship.

So, paying attention to customer reviews and dealing with them in the correct way can help to improve the number of positive reviews in the end, as well as manage expectations. Never underestimate the power of turning a negative into a positive.